Electronic Theses
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Browsing Electronic Theses by Issue Date "2014-08-21"
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- ItemCharacterization of injuries and health of injured loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in coastal waters of the southeastern U.S.(2014-08-21) Alderson, Jesse Elizabeth; Owens, David Wm.; Arendt, Michael D.; Segars, Al; Strand, AllanThis study utilized a standardized characterization system to describe injuries observed on loggerhead sea turtles captured by the SCDNR in-water sea turtle study between 2000 and 2009. At least one injury was noted among 27.4% (n = 433 of 1,579) of collected loggerheads. Injury rates were higher in adults than in sub-adults and juveniles, but were comparable between males and females. Loggerheads collected from shipping channels had higher injury rates than those captured elsewhere from comparable distances from shore. Observed injuries were not evenly distributed on the body, with the carapace exhibiting the highest proportion of injury (40.4%). Types of injuries were not evenly distributed, with amputations comprising 50.9% of all injuries. Significantly more injuries were healed (87.2%) relative to other injury ages, and a significant proportion of injuries could not be attributed to any source (85.1%). These finding collectively suggest that sub-lethal injuries are common among free-swimming loggerheads, with the highest proportion of injuries affecting the posterior carapace; however, the predominantly healed state of injuries suggests low annual infliction rates and a high resiliency to injuries among loggerheads. Analysis of several blood parameters in injured and non-injured loggerheads suggested that injuries had no detectable long-term effect on health; however, corticosterone analyses suggested that the injury healing process may affect the physiological stress response. Concentrations of circulating corticosterone were significantly different between loggerheads with healing injuries and their controls. Additionally, initial corticosterone concentrations were significantly higher in loggerheads with partially healed relative to healed injures, and the corticosterone response to capture stress was suppressed in loggerheads with partially healed injuries relative to loggerheads with healed, fresh, and stingray injuries.
- ItemConstruction of the past: The memory and thought of Herbert Ravenel Sass, Archibald Rutledge, and Ben Robertson(2014-08-21) Harrelson, Alan James; Sinisi, Kyle; Renouard, Joe; Bodek, Rich; Grenier, KatherineBeing a work of southern intellectual history, this thesis explores the twentieth century literature of three South Carolina authors. The writings of Herbert Ravenel Sass, Archibald Rutledge, and Ben Robertson illustrate the existence of a literary movement within interwar South Carolina in favor of the southern conservative ethos. After 1930, the Vanderbilt Agrarian movement began to wane quickly as its organization shattered. Many of the Vanderbilt writers abandoned their original efforts and several eventually left the South to pursue careers elsewhere. In South Carolina, a noticeable movement continued well into the 1950s. The Agrarians presented disparate and confusing arguments occasionally in favor of a southern yeoman culture, and at other times a culture of large estates and planters, two notions that created two disparate ideas of the South. The Carolina authors, with the qualified exception of Ben Robertson, overwhelmingly promoted a set of aristocratic values and a memory of the plantation aristocracy. To them, an image and conception of the plantation was the primary, defining feature of South Carolina's southern past. My argument that a cohesive traditionalist literary movement existed in South Carolina rests upon the significant degree to which these authors promoted this vision of the states past, an encompassing vision that described the origins and character of what they sought to conserve.
- ItemEffects of outward communicator traits on complaint perception(2014-08-21) Miller, Kurtis David; Kopfman, Jenifer E.; Elisei, Merissa FerraraParticipants rated their perceptions of complaints which were presented as delivered by individuals with differing gender and racial/ethnic traits in terms of severity/seriousness, interest, and fairness. The presented gender of the complainer had no significant effect on perceptions of severity/seriousness, interest, or fairness, but the presented racial/ethnic identity of the complainer had statistically significant effects in all three areas. Unexpectedly, complaints were rated as more severe/serious, interesting, and fair when they were presented as delivered by members of racial/ethnic minorities than when they were presented as delivered by members of the racial/ethnic majority. Post hoc findings also revealed a tendency for female respondents to rate complaints higher in terms of severity, interest, and fairness than male respondents.
- ItemEstimating reef fish reproductive productivity on artificial and natural reefs off the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United States(2014-08-21) Danson, Bryan Lawrence; Reichert, Marcel; Wynaski, David; Sancho, Gorka; Martore, RobertArtificial reefs (ARs) are generally designed to increase habitat for reef fishes, especially economically important species [e.g., black sea bass (BSB; Centropristis striata)]. The three principle goals of ARs are to create reef habitat to reduce fishing pressure on natural reefs, to enhance production of reef fish species, and to provide habitat in areas that increase the convenience or efficiency of harvesting reef-associated species. No known research has attempted to assess the enhancement of reproductive productivity of reef fishes on ARs off the southeastern Atlantic coast. The present study first attempted to document spawning on four South Carolina (SC) ARs from 2008-2009 via histology in four abundant reef fishes: BSB, gray triggerfish (Balistes capriscus), red porgy (RP; Pagrus pagrus), and vermilion snapper (Rhomboplites aurorubens). The present study then investigated the eproductive production of BSB on two ARs and one natural reef (NR) off Charleston, SC, by estimating potential annual fecundity (PAF) m^-2 in the spring of 2009. An equation relating fecundity to standard length (SL) was applied to estimates of density and length to estimate PAF m^-2. The BSB fecundity assessment was conducted on fish collected by the MARMAP program at SC-NR from 2000-2009. Density estimations were collected through underwater 360 point count videos. Length estimates were obtained from fish collected via hook-and-line sampling on the ARs to document spawning. Spawning was documented on the ARs in RP and BSB. Black sea bass was found to exhibit indeterminate fecundity, spawning frequency was re-calculated, and batch fecundity was significantly related to fish length and weight. Potential annual fecundity m^-2 was 2.5-fold to four-fold greater on the ARs than on the NR, owing to the greater density and greater mean SL of BSB on the ARs compared to the NR. The methods provided here allow the comparison of reproductive productivity in fishes between ARs and NRs for the purpose of evaluating ARs as tools to enhance production.
- ItemForaging habitat selection and nesting success of wood storks in South Carolina(2014-08-21) Tomlinson, Bree Anne; Murphy, Thomas; Hughes, Melissa; Owens, DavidThis study was conducted to increase knowledge of foraging habitat selection and nesting success of Wood Storks nesting in South Carolina during the 2008 season. Results from this study were intended to aid the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources in the recovery, protection, and management of the species. During the foraging habitat selection survey, Wood Storks from the coastal colonies of Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, Pon Pon Lakes, and White Hall II were found to forage primarily at forested and nonforested habitats with a mean travel distance of 10.25 km. Wood Storks from these three colonies foraged along their associated river drainage and primarily in separate foraging regions, by colony. I monitored nesting success during 2008 for the three focal colonies from the foraging study, with the addition of the Dungannon Heritage Preserve colony. Nest monitoring from the four South Carolina colonies documented an overall success rate near two young per successful nest, which is above the standard set by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in the Wood Stork Recovery Plan of 1997.
- ItemMolecular physiology and stress responses of the Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei: impacts of hypoxia and hypercapnic hypoxia(2014-08-21) Rathburn, Charles Kolo; Burnett, Karen; Burnett, Louis; Zimmerman, Anastasia; Burge, ErinMany crustaceans inhabit estuarine ecosystems where they are frequently exposed to hypoxia (H) and elevated levels of CO2 (hypercapnia). These factors may impair the ability of crustaceans to maintain optimal metabolic processes. Marine crustaceans employ various tactics to cope with environmental H and hypercapnia, which can require changes in biochemistry such as altered activities of metabolic enzymes. Furthermore, by regulating their gene expression marine crustaceans may coordinate specific and general stress responses to H and hypercapnic H (HH) which may include metabolic depression. This study set out to determine the impacts of H and HH on the molecular physiology of the Pacific white shrimp, L. vannamei. First, we tested whether moderate H or HH would augment lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), a tissue enzyme associated with anaerobic metabolism. LDH activity did not change in abdominal muscle of L. vannamei exposed to moderate H for 24 h or HH for 4 h; LDH activity also did not change in L. vannamei hepatopancreas (HP) after 24 h HH exposure. These results suggest that moderate H and HH do not increase glycolysis in L. vannamei. Second, we tested the hypothesis that H and HH elicit down-regulation of genes associated with metabolic depression, specifically protein synthesis and transcription. Shrimp were held in H, HH, or normoxia (N) for 4 h or 24 h. RNA from HP tissue was hybridized to microarrays containing 21,864 unigenes expressed by L. vannamei. Transcriptional profiles of H and HH animals were compared to respective 4 and 24 h N controls. Genes involved in amino acid metabolism, RNA metabolism, and translation (including numerous tRNA synthetases) were down-regulated in 4 h H, 24 h H and 4 h HH shrimp. Additionally, unique patterns of gene expression were tied to specific treatments and times. Overall, these results suggest that crustacean molecular responses to environmental changes in O2 and CO2 pressure involve both general and stress-specific gene sets, with shifts to metabolic depression occurring rather than increased anaerobic metabolism. This work contributes insight to the effects human perturbations might have on estuarine organisms.